the expressionistic, claustrophobic sets portraying
the inside of an insane asylum (symbolic of America) where ambitious
newspaper-tabloid reporter Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck), pretending
to be a madman, commits himself in order to solve a murder and
win the Pulitzer Prize

the scene of his actually becoming mad during an indoor electrical
thunderstorm

the scene in which black inmate Trent (Hari Rhodes)
believes he's a white supremacist Klan member with a white hood -
and foments an attack on another black inmate

the scene of the attack on Barrett in the nympho
ward

Short Cuts (1993)

In Robert Altman's naked depiction of desperate people
in Southern California:

the film's fluid interweaving and overlapping of
the tragicomic stories/lives of twenty-two characters, including:
- a mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who engages in phone sex while diapering
her baby
- a jealous surgeon (Matthew Modine) and redheaded faithless wife (Julianne
Moore - while naked from the waist down - confessing her infidelity
to her husband as she blow-dries her dress)
- a couple (Bruce Davison, Andie MacDowell) whose son - on his birthday
- is run down by an automobile
- the hit-run waitress (Lily Tomlin) who is married to an abusive drunk
(Tom Waits)
- a sinister and lonely baker (Lyle Lovett) who makes nasty and anonymous
phone calls
- fishing buddies (Fred Ward, Buck Henry, and Huey Lewis) who find
a dead girl's body floating lifeless near their campsite
- an ex-husband (Peter Gallagher) who uses a chain-saw to divide things
up in his ex-wife's house

Clouseau's exasperated and bug-eyed Chief Inspector
Charles Dreyfus' (Herbert Lom) line: "Give me ten men like Clouseau
and I could destroy the world!")

Clouseau's struggle with the game of billiards using
a curved cue stick

his duel with an uncooperative cue rack

the visit of Clouseau and Maria to Camp Sunshine
- a nudist resort and their unclothed drive through the crowded streets
of Paris

Show Boat (1936)

In director James Whale's 1936 version of the musical
drama [Note: the film was remade as the colorful Show Boat (1951) by
director George Sidney with a toned-down version of "Ol' Man
River" sung by Joe (William Warfield)]:

the classic scene of the singing of the immortal
song "Ol' Man River" by black stevedore Joe (Paul Robeson),
filmed with a sweeping 270 degree camera pan around him and accompanied
by an expressionistic montage

the poignant, solo performance of "Bill" by
Julie (Helen Morgan)

Showgirls (1995)

In director Paul Verhoeven's (teamed up again with
screenwriter Joe Eszterhas) big-budget, exploitative, misogynistic,
guilty-pleasure, show-biz related adult film - a sexploitation drama
that flopped at the box office, but was one of the most notorious
films of the 90s, later finding an audience among cult film-goers
(although it reportedly destroyed the career of star Elizabeth Berkley,
earlier noted for her role in the late 80s TV show Saved By the
Bell):

the film was the first attempt of Hollywood
to mass market a studio film with an NC-17 rating (since the failure
of Caligula (1979)), yet it failed miserably

its controversial content - loaded with very frequent
nudity, sexuality, notorious dialogue, and campy sleaze in a drama
about the sex industry - an uncensored look at the show-biz world
Las Vegas strip clubs and shows

the sequences of topless pole-clinging dancing at
the Cheetah and higher-class hotel shows and their headliner dancers
at the Stardust in Las Vegas

Shrek's rescue of the pouty, fiercely independent
Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz) on a mission to save her from
a fire-breathing Dragon for the nefarious, narcissistic midget Lord
Farquaad (voice of John Lithgow) - who has banished fairy tale characters
into exile

Donkey's romance with the female Dragon

the many one-liners and fairy tale references

the unlikely romance between Shrek and Fiona, who
initially rejected him for being an ogre

the revelation of the plot twist: Fiona was a maiden
by day, and an ogre by night

the climax in which the forced marriage between Fiona
and Farquaad was interrupted by the dragon

the sharing of their true love's first kiss when
Shrek kissed Fiona to free her from her enchantment -- resulting
in a glorious explosion of light, shattering the church's stained
glass windows

in another twist, how Fiona remained an ogre permanently
-- love's true form

also the celebratory party finale in which Donkey
and the other fairy tale characters sing The Monkees' "I'm a
Believer"

the opening credits sequence highlighting Shrek (voice
of Mike Myers) and Fiona's honeymoon, with dozens of rapid-fire cultural
and filmic references (from From Here to
Eternity (1953) to The Little Mermaid (1989) to The
Lord of the Rings trilogy) and visual gags -- all heard to the
tune of the Counting Crows' Oscar-nominated song
"Accidentally in Love"

the "Are we there yet?" scene with an extremely
impatient Donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy) voicing his boredom in an
onion carriage during their journey to Far, Far Away (the Hollywood/Beverly
Hills-inspired town with Farbucks and Old Knavery, and other similar
stores)

the stunned reaction of the crowd to ogres Shrek and
Fiona -- punctuated by a distracted dove crashing into the castle
wall

the Meet the Parents (2000)-inspired strained
dinner party with Fiona's shocked royal parents King Harold (voice
of John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (voice of Julie Andrews)

the plotting Fairy Godmother (voice of Jennifer
Saunders) singing the "Fairy Godmother Song," a bouncy
parody of "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

her scheme to kill Shrek and marry Fiona to her
rich son Prince Charming

Shrek's drinking of a Happily Ever After Potion that
turned him into a hunky man (and transformed Donkey into a white
stallion to his personal delight - "I'm trotting!") --
as well as Fiona changing back to her original human form

the scene of shared wine passion in which Miles explains
to Maya how he views himself as a pinot noir ("It's thin-skinned,
temperamental, ripens early...Only somebody who really takes the
time to understand Pinot's potential can then coax it into its fullest
expression") and her extolling of wine for its evolving nature
("...it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is,
until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable
decline")

the hilarious scene of Miles' retrieval of Jack's
wallet in the bedroom of his latest conquest - a married woman ("My
friend was the one balling your wife")

the last lines of the film - Maya's answering machine
message ("Don't give up, Miles. Keep writing. I hope you're
well. Bye") listened to by Miles - followed by the poignant
shot of Miles -- after having driven back to the Valley -- knocking
on Maya's door

The Sign of the Cross (1932)

In director Cecil B. DeMille's spectacular, pre-censorship
epic:

the display of Rome's sins and depravities (homosexuality,
orgies, nudity, and murder) in multiple ways and memorable scenes

the attempted corruptive seduction scene of virginal,
blonde Christian Mercia (Elissa Landi) by Ancaria (Joyzelle Joyner)
with a lesbian-tinged dance of the "Naked Moon" that visibly
aroused its audience

the scenes of semi-naked women condemned to slaughter
in the Arena while Nero watched distractedly from the side, including:
- one rope-stretched screaming female victim awaiting hissing crocodiles
- and another flower-garlanded-tied nude female Christian martyr awaiting
death in a Roman arena from a devouring silverback gorilla

Signs (2002)

In M. Night Shyamalan's scary horror film about alien
visitation:

the awesome opening scene of ex-Bucks County Pennsylvania
"father" and
emotionally-wounded widower Rev. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) awakening
to find his two dazed children Morgan and Bo (Rory Culkin and Abigail
Breslin) in their cornfield looking at huge crop circles, with
Morgan's thought: "I think God did it"

the scene around the dinner table with Graham's anger
about prayer ("I am not wasting one more minute of my life on
prayer") followed by the family's hug

Graham's speech about two kinds of reactions to an
experience ("See what you have to ask yourself is what kind
of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles?
Or do you believe that people just get lucky?")

the scene of CNN news footage from a Brazilian children's
birthday party, showing home video footage of a brief shot of a green
alien walking past an alley, with horrified younger brother Merrill
Hess' (Joaquin Phoenix) urgent warning shouted at the TV to the birthday
party children:
"Move children!! Vaminos!!"

the scene of the blocked kitchen pantry in neighbor
Ray Reddy's (director Shyamalan) house, where Graham discovered
a trapped giant alien - when he bent down, knelt, and tried to look
under the pantry door (using the reflection of a shiny, large butcher
knife). On a second attempt, the alien grabbed
at him. He used the knife to cut off two protruding fingers on the
alien's clawed hand reaching out from the underside of the closed
door - causing the trapped creature to let out a high-pitched, blood-curdling
scream.

Bo's calmly-delivered line in the dark basement: "There's
a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?"

the final climax when a tall greenish, gas-expelling
alien broke into the Hess household and put the weak and asthmatic
Morgan at risk - but was killed by dousings with glasses of water
(acting like acid on the alien), and swings of Merrill's baseball
bat! ("Swing
away, Merrill. Merrill... swing away")

her first meeting with the chilling, repellent, super-intelligent,
cold-eyed and intriguing Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter
(Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins) - who stands there with his head
tilted and then requests that she come "Clos-er" to show
her credentials

the serial killer Lecter's famous lines: "Memory,
Agent Starling, is what I have, instead of a view" - "You
use Evian skin cream and sometimes you wear L'air du Temps - but
not today" - "You're so-o ambitious, aren't you? You know
what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes?
You look like a rube..." - and the one about his refined taste
in cruelty - with the sound effect of sifting through his teeth: "A
census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava
beans and a nice Chi-an-ti"
- fpt-fpt-fpt''

the many scenes of their intense, seductive discussions-interrogations
at his jail cell - including her confession about failing to rescue
a lamb from the slaughter - as the camera moves in for intense close-ups

the scene in which Lecter lunged at Sgt. Pembry (Alex
Coleman) with bloody, face-eating cannibalism, then savagely beat
Sgt. Boyle (Charles Napier) to death with a police riot baton, and
relaxed afterwards to Bach's Goldberg Variations

the image of Lecter's muzzled restraint with a face
mask

Clarice's entry into the home of the serial killer
Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb (Ted Levine) and stalking from
Bill's POV with night-goggles

Lecter's curtain-closing phone call to Clarice with
his final words about literally dining 'with' Dr. Chilton - and his
disguised stroll wearing a Panama hat into a crowded Caribbean town's
street: ("I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an
old friend for dinner")

Silver Lode (1954)

In director Allan Dwan's psychological western:

the July 4th bell-tower scene in which respected
citizen Dan Ballard (John Payne), wrongly-accused of murder and
taking $20,000, is saved -- literally, by a church bell (on the
other side is gun-shooting Ned McCarthy (Dan Duryea)) and by bride-to-be
Rose Evans (Lizabeth Scott) who forges a telegram to proclaim his
innocence - a metaphoric re-enactment of the McCarthy era of blacklisting

the reprieved and saved Ballard angrily telling
the townsfolk: "A moment ago, you wanted to kill me...You wouldn't
believe what I said. A man's life can hang in the balance on a piece
of paper"